HEY! What happened to the Peachfront Conure Files? The world's only OFFICIAL Peachfront Conure site now features free peachfront conure coverage, including
a magazine length Intro to Conures previously published in American Cage-Bird Magazine, now free on the web. I offer the best free Peachfront Conure information on the internet. If you have great Peachfront Conure info, stories, or photos to share, contact me so I can publicize your pet, your breeding success, your great photograph, etc. on my site. Thanks.

alberta trip report part 3: the theme was bears

icefields parkway

maligne canyon

Sunday, June 11

Today we decided to conquer Maligne Canyon, the smart way, by starting at the bottom and going up.
There are 6 bridges along the way, and apparently most tours believe that it's more logical to start
at the top (bridge number 1) and then have people ascend into the canyon toward bridge number 6 at the bottom.
Of course, what really happens is that people get nervous about having to turn around and climb
back out of the canyon before their bus leaves -- or else they just can't be sure that they will have
the energy to climb out just because they were able to climb down. So they hang around Bridge 1 or
Bridge 2 or even inside the teahouse. In that way, they really miss the true canyon experience.

maligne canyon

Having our own rental car, what DH and I did instead was to park at the bottom and hike up. In that way, when we were tired, we'd
be making our descent, and it would be much easier. The plan worked perfectly, and I was impressed
at how tired I wasn't after we did the entire hike and bagged all of the bridges and overlooks.

As an alternative hike, you could start from Bridge 5 and go up to 1, skipping the bottom section between
the 6 and 5 bridges. This plan is worth considering mainly because horses are allowed to use that section,
so by skipping the 6/5 leg, you do skip the part where you have to be on the lookout for
what horses do best.

It was raining when we started the hike. We simply ignored it. The mud was pretty bad in spots, but
the trees kept the rain from hitting us too hard, and eventually the weather got bored of screwing
with us. At one point near Bridge 3, I spotted a thick clump of snow or ice actually hanging onto the
side wall of the canyon below us. Brrrrr! It was definitely a little nippy for my concept of June. But
we certainly passed some spectacular scenery.

It might have been near Bridge 5 where, for the first time, we actually stopped and studied one of the
singing Yellow-Rumped Warblers, instead of just saying, yeah, Yellow-Rump, next? It
turned out to be a Myrtle plain as day, and not an Audubon, as I'd
assumed merely because we were in the wild west. In fact, after that, I started checking, and all the
Yellow-Rumps I saw were Myrtles. So you learn something new every day.

After our hike, we did another wildlife/scenic drive around Medicine and then Maligne Lakes. A short ways past
Medicine Lake, we came to the biggest traffic mess yet, with multiple RVs, tour buses, and private
vehicles parked any old where in the road and along the road. We didn't object when we realized
that the purpose of the impromptu parking lot was to watch the big old mama Black Bear and her
three -- count 'em, three! -- cute little cubs. I didn't even know that they could have three cubs, although
now that I'm back on the internet, I can see that it's rather common. Well, it wasn't common to us, and
we watched in amusement as the baby bears pestered mama and one little bear even reared back on his
hind legs to show how big he wasn't. After awhile, she must have given them some sort of signal, because
they all went climbing up the same tree.

Two of the little cubs were as agile as monkeys and quickly went all the way to the top, where the branches
were so skinny you wondered how they could hold them. The third cub went halfway up and seemed to become
confused. He tried to go out on a horizontal branch, but after awhile he noticed that he wasn't getting
any nearer his siblings. Then he went back and tried another horizontal branch. Nope. Then he just
sat and clutched the trunk of the tree for awhile. I guess there's one in every family.

The mother bear was huge and made no attempt to climb this tree, which I doubt could have held her in
any case. She continued to eat the wildflowers along the road until she got bored with the tourists,
at which time she vanished into the undergrowth. All in all, a very special sighting.

okay, the baby pix are technically the worst photographs
of the trip, but i'm subjecting you to them so that you can see the photo evidence of the happy family,
complete with mama bear and three tiny cubs, mostly the little guys were pretty good at keeping
their heads down in the grass or tree branches though, great binocular objects, terrible photo subjects

Near Maligne Lake, we took the Moose Lake stroll where moose are "sometimes" seen. Well, "sometimes" wasn't today,
although we got pretty close to some young mule deer near the entrance. The understory
of this woodland was a beautiful carpet of green, gold, red-tipped, and even white mosses. I tried to
get a photo but couldn't really capture the interplay of the colors.

At some point as we were driving out of the Maligne Lake area, we noticed a tattered, molting, raggedy-ass, truly
pathetic large raptor overhead. It turned out to be an immature Bald Eagle. Oh well, I guess it's better to be
beautiful when you're old rather than when you're young. It's pretty stupid the way we humans do it when you
stop and think about it. We laughed, but the Eagle has so much more to look forward to!

As a final cap to the day, we tried to find Punchbowl Falls by car, and we actually did find it -- but
it was well obscured by trees and not really an object for photography any more, although we could see
that it was quite a dramatic waterfall. Next we located the Miette Hot Springs and followed the whiff of
sulphur to the original springs.

Tonight the two burner special was more rum toddies and some lamb chops in butter and whiskey sauce. Hmmm. When
you don't have your normal herbs and spices, you have to rely a little more on the little dashes of whatever
booze you happen to have around. I also had some of the remaining green onion, which helped quite a bit.
It wasn't bad but I'm thinking I prefer the white wine/butter sauce I did for the chicken to the whiskey/butter
sauce for the lamb. But you could make a good argument for both of them.

it probably shouldn't be this hard but i simply can't identify
this comma species

June 12, Monday

We planned to hike Mount Edith Cavell and see Angel Glacier today, but the road was closed. Instead, we again attempted the
Valley of the Five Lakes. We had a lot more time and energy, and since we hadn't ascended to the top of
The Whistlers first, we were surprised at how much easier the trail had become. A special moment came
when we watched a young male Bufflehead dive, repeatedly, into the clear lake water. You could follow
him all the way to the bottom and back up again. These glacial lakes may frost the toes, but they do
provide for good viewing. Around another corner, we spied a pair of "Oregon" Dark-Eyed Juncos just emerging
from a bath and fluffing out their feathers. I don't know if I ever saw just one Cedar Waxwing before,
but we did here, right near the path, a resplendent male who showed himself from every angle in case
we were hoping against hope that he might be a Bohemian. Perhaps the most impressive specimen, though,
was the male Red-Naped Sapsucker who seemed to flash in the sunlight as he bounced off the trunk of
almost every nearby tree as he tried to figure out what the heck we were doing in his forest.

Did you know that they have Canadian Tigers? I'd seen a few, but here I had a close encounter, and
here's a photograph to prove it:

canadian tiger swallowtail at valley of the five lakes

It was time to try some foofy little restaurant in Jasper. I had the lasagne special, which was OK and
I ate it all, but I wouldn't order it again -- garlic not properly sweet, tomato sauce not quite there
at all. Meat is Alberta's thing, no getting around it. They also had an interesting little blueberry wine
from Newfoundland. I secretly thought it would be horrid and too-too sweet, but since it was the featured
wine of the day, I gave it a spin, and it was actually quite good. For dessert, I had their "Canadian Cow,"
milk and maple liqueur on the rocks. Now that's decadence.

lake beauvert

We then took a spin around Lake Beauvert, to see how the other half lives. I'm not convinced that they're
getting their money's worth, really. Our cabins are better -- detached instead of in fourplexes or whatever --
and we don't have all that golf course in the way of the hiking. We were actually going to stay there in
September, but when I tried to re-schedule, the cabins were over $500 a night. No way, Bucky. If a casino
host is not paying the bill for me, I just don't play that way. We saw why, though. They were having
a big golf tournament, which would have bored us out of our gourds anyway. So it all turned out
for the best.

We were also greatly amused to see the hordes of Canada Goose that are quietly occupying the grounds. The rich
are different from you and me -- they are infested by more geese.

The lake was absolutely gorgeous, like all the lakes in the area.

On the drive back, we saw the cutest thing. There are always elk and bighorn along the road, but everyone
was stopping for these bighorns, and then we saw the teeny tiny newborn bighorn teetering alongside
her mother. The new mom cast a hairy eyeball at the crowd and then put her own body between her baby
and the street. It was so adorable even though it interfered with my hope of photographing baby.

Before it was too late, I strolled along the old mine trail in hopes of finding just one tiny fossil but there wasn't so much
as a scrap of coal. Since it closed in the 1920s, I'm sure that every tiny worthless piece of
coal was gathered for fuel during the Great Depression. Heck, there was hardly even any dust
in the old vault.

I also found an area where there was lots and lots of balled-up sheep fur on the ground. Yes, the
dandelions were flying. Yes, the cottonwood puffs too. But this was fur, ya'll, and lots of it. I wonder
if a mother bighorn had a nest there for when she gave birth?

This dinner might have been the best yet for the old two burner stove top. It was peppercorn
steak in butter sauce, and it just melted in the mouth. Of course I didn't let the evening end
without another dip in the hot tub.

Tuesday, June 13

Well, it was time to run the film in reverse. We did Icefields Parkway again -- this time with the sun shining
on the glaciers instead of the gloomy gray rain. I got a ton of pictures, so many that I hardly know
where to begin to sort them all out. More elk -- including two swimming male elk, one each in Banff
and Jasper National Park -- more sheep, more nutcrackers. At the Bow Summit, we watched a young man
get badgered out of his picnic lunch by a persistent Clark's Nutcracker. The bird ate some of the bread or
lunch meat, but he went to a different tree every time to store most of it. Was he a young bird who doesn't
know yet what happens to bread when it's stored in the rain? Other people wanted to feed the bird, and
at one point, the young man even pointed to the young women he was flirting with and suggested the bird
take their food, but it was no good. That bird was not going to give up on the mark until he'd
been stripped of every crumb of bread. I say he was a Black Bear in his past life.

Speaking of Black Bear, as we passed the Muleshoe picnic area, I thought I saw a bear or at least a bear's
head. But we couldn't turn around quickly, since just ahead people were stopped to watch a swimming elk.
"Is it a moose?" a tourist asked hopefully. (People just assume you know everything if
you wear the Swarovskis.)

"No, it's an elk," I replied. "Check for the white butt."

Damn, they drove off in a hurry. Was it something I said?

After the elk had emerged from the cold water, the traffic snarl broke up and we turned back. We
entered the Muleshoe parking lot, only to spot the biggest, fattest, most obese Common Raven I ever
do hope to see. But no bear. What the hey? Could I have confused even the biggest raven with an
entire bear? Puzzled and perplexed at what tricks the human eye and mind can play, I told DH to move on.

Then, as we were pulling out of the parking lot, I saw it across the street. It was bear, all right, and not
a small one either. Whew. At least I know I'm not going blind and crazy just yet.

It was a very restless spirit of a bear, again criss-crossing the street while we watched and allowing
me to get a fairly nice photo.

Our last night was at a funny, clueless motel with almost no parking and the world's smallest ice bucket.
The room was actually quite big for a motel but I have to say, there is no doubt that the Clark's
Nutcracker's IQ was higher than our poor hapless clerk's. I don't think she managed to answer even
one question correctly. Just the trouble she had with printing the receipt, I'm still a little surprised
the bill came through OK. But we found our way around all right. We strolled through the town
and eventually dined in a popular Italian restaurant with big window views of the mountains all around.
My chicken cordon bleu was excellent, although the pasta was so-so and couldn't compete with mine on its
worst day. I also tried their Tartini, which was sort of an apple martini with added orange juice. Maybe
too much orange juice, which competed with the crisp apple taste, but I practically floated back to the motel and
certainly couldn't pretend I was sorry I'd ordered it.

June 14, Wednesday

It was rainy driving back to catch our plane -- too rainy for any raptors, I'm afraid. The rental car guys
weren't mad at all that we had a slight chip in the windshield. They said the insurance covered it and that, anyway,
it happens all the time around here because of the gravel put on the roads in winter. So, if you're
driving the Icefields Parkway, it couldn't hurt to get the rental car company's insurance, folks, unless
you are SURE you're covered by your own insurance. I'm afraid I rented cars for years and never knew that
our liability coverage didn't cover rental cars until the lady rear-ended me on
July 20, 2003, the
day of the flood.

I felt we were going in circles to figure out how to get our taxes back for our hotel bill, but it
was actually very easy once we understood the process. You can get a check sent to you by the
Canadian government, which I wouldn't be able to cash for a reasonable price in Louisiana because
it would be in Canadian dollars, or you can pay a private firm a percentage and get Canadian cash from them
on the spot which you can then easily exchange for U.S. dollars at one of the money changer's booths. The private
booth lady had just been yelled at by her previous customer, and she seemed worried that I would feel she
was cheating us, but I assured her that I was happy to pay the small fee -- and small it was compared
to the $40 or so I'd pay down here. Now if you're a European or Mexican from some advanced country where banks easily
change different currencies without any fuss and muss, by all means feel free to DIY.

flowers at bow summit

I had heard many blood-chilling tales about the ogres involved in customs at Calgary. Not the Canadians, but about
the U.S. security people. They've been called everything on the internet except human beings. However,
they didn't seem like quite the dragons they'd been painted. They just seemed a little harried and
overworked. I wasn't horribly surprised that DH, having a common name, again had to go through
secondary, but I have to admit that I was disappointed because he didn't have to undergo the process
returning from Costa Rica. It sounds like from what they told him that they pretty much have to start over
with verifying flagged passports every year. So maybe if he flies again internationally this year, it will
be OK. But if he flies again next year, we will just have to be sure to leave enough time.

Who knew back in the 1960s that it was the parents who named their kids Moon Unit and Dweezil who were the
smart ones? They'll never get told by a regretful security officer that, "Sir, as you know, you
have a very common name, so...."

the kind of sign that makes you think, yeah right, except
in our case we actually lucked out and saw a wolf in this area -- most of the signs
along the route warn of bighorns and elk, the usual road hazards of the parkway

But they weren't mean at all. In fact, I watched as they rushed around trying to get another man
cleared in time to make his plane. They weren't able to, but it wasn't for lack of frantic effort.

It did seem unusual that we cleared U.S. Customs in Calgary, on Canadian soil, but what the hey. It meant we didn't have
to grab our bag and go through Customs/Immigration in Houston, which is never the highlight of anyone's
day.

mama bighorn teaching a young one to play in traffic,
these characters crossed the street a couple of times while we watched, i honestly think they
were getting a kick out of making the big trucks stop